Offensive snap counts (68 total plays):
QB Jayden Maiava 68, LT Elijah Paige 68, LG Emmanuel Pregnon 68, C Jonah Monheim 68, RG Alani Noa 68, RT Mason Murphy 68, TE Lake McRee 66, RB Woody Marks 50, WR Zachariah Branch 40, WR Kyron Hudson 38, WR Kyle Ford 32, TE Walker Lyons 30, WR Duce Robinson 30, WR Makai Lemon 29, RB Quinten Joyner 18, WR Ja'Kobi Lane 6, TE Kade Eldridge 1.
-That was the most snaps Joyner had played since the Wisconsin game, and his 7 carries (for 19 yards) were his most since Utah State.
-That was a season-high snaps for Lyons, who hadn't played more than 18. USC used a lot of two-TE sets Saturday.
-We talked about Lane's usage on the board, but the prevailing presumption is that he was benched to start the game due to his Twitter rantings after the QB switch. He did not play the first quarter and was out there at the start of the second. Lincoln Riley was asked afterward if Lane was sick -- Riley mentioned much of the team had the flu -- or if it was a coach's decision to limit his role. Riley sidestepped it pretty well, saying, "No, yeah, we've had a lot of people under the weather. There's honestly more that are than not, so our building looked like a little bit of a mash unit the last couple of days, so no, hopefully we can get some of these guys healthy from that. We were definitely fresher today, but we missed some key bodies and guys that, there was a lot of guys that weren't 100 percent and we had to adjust some of the reps because of that." So take from that what you will.
Top-graded offensive players:
1. LT Elijah Paige 80.0
2. WR Duce Robinson 79.8
3. RB Woody Marks 72.8
4. WR Kyron Hudson 69.1
5. WR Kyle Ford 65.9
6. C Jonah Monheim 64.2
7. RT Mason Murphy 63.0
8. QB Jayden Maiava 62.3
9. RB Quinten Joyner 61.6
10. WR Zachariah Branch 56.4
Notes ...
-That marked Elijah Paige's highest PFF grade all season, his highest pass-blocking grade (83.9) and highest run-blocking grade (74.7). He did not give up a single pressure or commit a penalty for the first time all season.
-USC gave up 8 pressures total -- 3 from Mason Murphy, 2 each from Emmanuel Pregnon and Alani Noa and 1 from TE Lake McRee. Officially, Jayden Maiava was sacked once, but PFF didn't assign that sack to any of the linemen.
-USC wasn't much more aggressive passing downfield than it has been as Maiava was just 3 of 6 on passes of at least 20 yards, for 97 yards and a TD. Of his 35 attempts, more than a third (12) were behind the line of scrimmage and another 9 less than 10 yards downfield.
-When Maiava wasn't blitzed, he completed 15 of 20 passes for 175 yards, 2 TDs and 0 picks. When blitzed, he was 10 of 15 for 84 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT.
-Woody Marks went over the 1,000-yard mark -- the first Trojans RB to do it since Ronald Jones in 2017 -- as his career-high 146 yards pushed him to 1,024 for the season. He's averaging 5.9 YPC overall and hit 7.7 YPC vs. Nebraska. Marks' six 100-yard rushing games are the most of any RB in Riley's time at USC.
-Marks became just the third running back over the last two seasons to rush for 100 yards vs. Nebraska.
-He only caused one missed tackle Saturday, but he had 52 yards after contact.
-Here was the targets distribution: Zachariah Branch 9 (6 catches for 41 yards and a TD), Kyron Hudson 6 (3 catches for 35 yards, TD), Marks 6 (6 catches for 36 yards), Duce Robinson 5 (4 catches for a career-high 90 yards, TD), Kyle Ford 3 (2 catches for 28 yards), Makai Lemon 2 (2 catches for 15 yards), Quinten Joyner 1 (1 catch for 5 yards), Lake McRee 1 (1 catch for 9 yards).
-Branch tied a season-high with those 6 catches and scored his first receiving TD of the season (3rd career).
-Robinson is now tied with Ja'Kobi Lane for the team lead with 5 receiving TDs.
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